Split down the middle

Pakistan has been going to the dogs for the last 20 years, and by the ways things look today, the process has sped up. Still, like everything else this country does, it’s going to take 20 more years before people will be saying that Pakistan has gone to the dogs. There’s still hope, but it doesn’t lie with Musharraf, and it certainly doesn’t lie with any of the current lot of politicians (and their numerous offspring).

bq.. Where does the country stand today? Better and stronger than ever, says the “boss” (to use a Jamali description). In the pits, shouts the opposition.

Where lies the truth? One way to get to know the truth is to see where we stood in 1999 and where Pakistan is today.

Macro economically there has been appreciable progress. As for the human condition: are the poor and the deprived better off? The answer is in the negative.

Politically the country has regressed. There have been elections accompanied by a lot of unprecedented political engineering.